Key Features

A TV and home cinema system that offer amazing picture quality and sensational surround sound are essential to create the ultimate home entertainment experience.

Once you’ve experienced sound through a home cinema you’ll never want to go back to standard sound from your TV. Put yourself right in the middle of the action, and watch movies the way directors intended. Let your music completely surround you as you play your collection from your home cinema speakers or wire up a games console and feel like you’re actually in the game.

This guide will talk you through the types of systems and technology available to help you choose the one that is right for you.

How to choose

Comet’s wide range of Home Cinema Systems provides everything you need to transform your living room and create the ultimate cinematic experience. All of our all-in-one systems are stylish, easy to set up and provide breathtaking sound quality. To ensure you choose the right system, first decide what type it best suited to your needs.

Blu-ray home cinema systems

Blu-ray is a high definition optical disc format that represents a leap forward in home cinema technology. Blu-ray uses blue laser technology and data compression to fit a huge amount of data on to a disc no bigger than a standard DVD. This means that there’s room for a feature length high definition movie and lots of space left over for exciting additional content and bonus features. A Blu-ray home cinema can also upscale your standard DVD collection to near high definition making them look even better. We have a range of Blu-ray home cinema systems, so now you can have incredible picture quality with astonishing surround sound.

DVD home cinema systems

If you don’t have loads of cash to splash on a Blu-ray home cinema system, then a DVD home cinema could be the perfect alternative. It will still give you a sensational surround sound that will make you feel like you are in the middle of the action, but won’t break the bank.

How many speakers

Next, you need to decide how many speakers you want. Obviously the more speakers the better the sound. But if you have a small room, or want the speakers to be hidden, less is more.

7.1 systems

Get the ultimate in surround sound with a 7.1 system. With this you get seven speakers: two front, two rear, two corner and a central speaker, plus subwoofer. The sound is immense and they look amazing as well.

5.1 systems

5.1 systems provide full surround sound experience from five speakers: two front, two rear and a central speaker, plus subwoofer. A lot of 5.1 systems come in different styles and sizes to suit different needs and tastes. Some have stylish tall boy speakers, while others are better suited to those with limited space as they have rear wall-mountable satellite speakers.

2.1 systems

Immerse yourself in sound, not speakers, with 2.1 systems. These compact two speaker systems are great if you want room-filling sound performance in a smaller space, like a bedroom or study. Most of these systems work by reflecting sound off the walls, so you get the realistic surround sound effect and no compromise on quality.

Latest Home Cinema Technology

Once you have decided upon the system you want then look out for the little extras which will improve functionality and your home cinema experience.

iPod Docking

Some of the latest home cinema systems are media friendly and come complete with a direct iPod dock or iPod cradle dock, letting you play your MP3 music files in amazing full surround sound.

HDMI

This stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface and is the most advanced way of connecting your home cinema system to your TV. Images and sound are transmitted through a single cable in a purely digital format, so interference is minimised and you can experience movies like never before.

A lot of our systems have HDMI up scaling, so your standard DVDs will appear in near high definition quality. At the moment, the best high definition picture you can get is 1080p. Some of our Home Cinema Systems are able to upscale standard images to 1080p resolution for outstanding picture quality.

Optical Input

Many of our new home cinema systems now have optical input. Unlike your standard red and white audio or scart connectors which use an analogue-only signal, the optical connection is completely digital for interference-free sound. In order to get that full 5.1 surround sound from Sky HD, your DVD home cinema system must have an optical input. This is because the HDMI connection on your Sky HD Box will be providing your TV with digital images, so you will need an optical connection to send digital audio signals to your home cinema for the sound.

Wireless Rear Speakers

Some of our home cinema systems have wireless rear speakers which are perfect for compact living rooms and wooden flooring. Set-up is quick and easy and you don’t have to put up with messy wires running all over your living room. Speaker positioning is also much more versatile so you can arrange the speakers to suit your home.

Hard Disc Drive

Home cinema systems with built-in hard drives let you record programs instantly without the need for discs ,so you’ll never have to miss a moment of your favourite shows again. Store hours of recording and enjoy them in surround sound at your convenience. Record straight onto DVD from your TV, or even your camcorder. The larger the number of gigabytes (GB) that the hard disk has the more programs that can be recorded onto it. Other features include pausing live TV, and simultaneously recording and playing back.